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Sanming Tonghui · A Comprehensive Account of the Three Destinies
On Flourishing, Support, Rest, Confinement, Death, and the Twelve Life Stages
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Abundant virtue riding its proper time is Flourishing. In spring, Wood flourishes and generates Fire. Fire is Wood's child; the child inherits the parent's enterprise, so Fire is Supported. Water generates Wood, and what generates me is my parent. Now that the heir has attained its season and risen to prominence, its parent should withdraw, so Water is at Rest. Rest means supreme goodness and being peacefully without activity. Fire can conquer Metal, Wood's hostile agent. Restrained by Fire and unable to act, Metal is Confined. Fire can generate Earth, which is Wood's Wealth. Wealth is something hidden. As plants grow, Earth disperses its energy as dust; thus spring Wood conquers Earth into Death. In summer Fire flourishes: Fire generating Earth gives Earth Support, Wood generating Fire gives Wood Rest, Water conquering Fire gives Water Confinement, and Fire conquering Metal gives Metal Death. In the sixth month Earth flourishes: Earth generating Metal gives Metal Support, Fire generating Earth gives Fire Rest, Wood conquering Earth gives Wood Confinement, and Earth conquering Water gives Water Death. In autumn Metal flourishes: Metal generating Water gives Water Support, Earth generating Metal gives Earth Rest, Fire conquering Metal gives Fire Confinement, and Metal conquering Wood gives Wood Death. In winter Water flourishes: Water generating Wood gives Wood Support, Metal generating Water gives Metal Rest, Earth conquering Water gives Earth Confinement, and Water conquering Fire gives Fire Death.
Observe summer drought, with Metal and stone melting and Water and Earth scorched. In the sixth month heat increases and cold disappears. Autumn Metal prevails and plants yellow and fall. Winter is intensely cold, Water freezes, and Fire energy suddenly diminishes. Their Flourishing and Death are broadly visible. In the seasonal sequence, a term at fullness declines; the five phases, their work accomplished, must return. Thus utmost yang descends, utmost yin ascends, the midday Sun inclines, and the full Moon wanes. This is Heaven's constant way. Human beings live between heaven and earth: accumulated power must diminish, gathered wealth disperse, youth turn to decline, and utmost joy to grief. This is ordinary human experience. Flourishing and decline, gain and loss, glory and withering, advance and retreat cannot escape this principle. A classic says: “Though humans are more numinous than all things, fate cannot escape the five phases.” This says it all.
The five phases lodge in twelve life-stage palaces: Long Life, Bathing, Cap and Belt, Assuming Office, Imperial Flourishing, Decline, Illness, Death, Tomb, Extinction, Womb, and Nurture. They cycle endlessly, ending and beginning again. Creation's broad form resembles humanity; circulating through the twelve palaces is like worldly rebirth. Essentials of the Three Destinies says: “First is Receiving Energy, also called Extinction and Fragility: things underground have no image, like an empty womb before anything is present. Second is Receiving Conception: heaven and earth's energies join and mingle to create; things germinate underground and first have energy, like a person receiving parents' energies. Third is Taking Form: things take shape underground, like a person in the womb. Fourth is Long Life: things emerge and flourish, like a newborn beginning to grow. Fifth is Bathing, also Defeat: newly born forms are soft and fragile, easily damaged, like a person bathed three days after birth and nearly exhausted. Sixth is Cap and Belt: things gradually become flourishing and refined, like a person furnished with clothes and cap. Seventh is Assuming Office: things are refined and substantial, like a person taking office. Eighth is Imperial Flourishing: things mature, like a person's prosperity. Ninth is Decline: forms weaken like human energy. Tenth is Illness: things ail like people. Eleventh is Death: things die like people. Twelfth is Tomb, also Storehouse: things finish their work and are stored, like a person ending life and returning to the grave. After Tomb they again receive energy, enter the womb, and are born.” In judging transformation, Birth and Flourishing are not necessarily auspicious, nor Rest, Confinement, Death, and Extinction necessarily harmful. Excessive Birth and Flourishing should be restrained; deficient Death and Extinction should be generated and supported. The subtlety lies in understanding adaptation. Ancients called Womb, Birth, Flourishing, and Storehouse the four noble stages; Death, Extinction, Illness, and Defeat the four taboos; the remainder the four neutral stages. This too is only a broad statement.
Translator's note: Both twelve-stage orders are retained, including the quoted Receiving Energy/Fragility, Receiving Conception, and Taking Form labels. All five seasonal rankings are complete. Birth, Death, Illness, and related terms are the source's technical images; the closing warning against judging them mechanically is included.
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